Stuart Ramsay

Chief Correspondent

I had woken really early, about 4.00 am, and I mean I was REALLY awake. I pulled my laptop towards me.

Like most journalists on a story, when we come round, we check if the piece we had filed for the morning is actually running.

If it isn't the day not only begins badly but pretty much guarantees some sort of argument with the foreign desk and the producers in London.

When you are in Mexico, six hours behind the UK, in truth, you've already lost the argument.

Image:Sky's Stuart Ramsay has been covering the devastating tremors in Mexico

But we have been covering the horrendous earthquake that has struck not just Mexico City but other major towns near the epicentre, and having travelled a couple of hundred miles to get there and back I was fairly certain London would have treated the story with the attention it deserved. They had.

Mexico gets a lot of earthquakes but it doesn't mean anyone gets used to it. Its just a fact of life. But after a big one people are more on edge.

In a hotel room the first thing you hear is the tinkle tinkle noise of coat hangers in the cupboard as they gently rock back and forth.

The first time I heard this I looked about the room, I guess with a surprised look on my face. Then I felt a shake like a tube train beneath me. Then the windows changed shape and basically bulged outwards. Then I ran.

I was thinking about this and the likelihood of aftershocks as I drifted back to sleep.

Image:Recovery teams find a painting amid debris

I woke around 8am. My alarm was making a peculiar noise and there was a voice shouting something in Spanish. As I reached for my phone to switch it off I realised I already had already switched it off, and anyway it doesn't speak.

The hotel alarm system was by now screeching, but like the totally unintelligible noise of a railway platform announcement, I couldn't work out what I was being told.

I pulled on trousers and a T-shirt and went to the door.

My neighbour had done the same. He looked at me and said: "That's an alarm right?" I nodded and watched as others came from their rooms and began to queue to get into the lift.

I was pretty sleepy and not really thinking straight so I went back to my room and decided to put some trainers on and grabbed my phones.

It then struck me - what if this is an earthquake early warning system? I had never heard of one before.

S***! I legged it past the people still waiting for the lift and banged open the emergency exit door and jumped onto a metal staircase bolted to the outside of the building. Nine floors up. S***!

As I passed the fourth floor a door burst open and a German reporter emerged. "I think we probably f***** already," he said in a rather jovial manner.

"Did you know they had a full two minute warning before the big one the other day? It's a very good system. Shame we missed it," he added with a laugh.

Image:Mexico's earthquake caused widespread damage

Apparently floor four to ground floor can be covered in eight jumps on a staircase if you are suitably motivated. Trust me I was.

I emerged blinking into the street and looked around. People were running in lots of directions but mainly towards a park in front of the hotel where it seems most of the staff and guests were already assembled.

I punched in the number for my cameraman, Richie Mockler. He picked up.

"You OK mate where's Andy (Marsh, our producer)?" I gasped, breathless after my descent and suddenly remembering Bob Beamon set the world long jump record here at altitude when I was four, hence explaining why I was knackered rather than terrified. Not.

We got into our car and drove through the city. To the destroyed buildings. Past the volunteers still digging. Past the police lines and military guards. Stopping as pedestrians entered the open shops and families oversaw their kids in playgrounds while holding onto their dogs.

Earthquakes here are common. Nobody gets used to them. Its just a fact of life.